The Virgin Cowboy Billionaire’s Secret Baby(30)

So she’d silently wished Matt the best, and then sadly deleted him from her contacts.

In the kitchen of her rental house in Aspen Mill, Dara sighed. She’d always regretted that night. Not because she’d accepted Jon’s proposal, but because she’d given up on her friendship with Matt. All because of a stupid argument.

Dara winced at the memory. Even today, she was ashamed of why she’d lashed out at Matt that night and the things that had not just crossed her mind but come out of her mouth. As long as she lived, she’d never forget the look on his face when she’d asked point-blank what made him think he had any say at all over who she raised her future children with.

His eyes had gotten huge, and his jaw had dropped. “What? Is that what you think this is about?”

“Tell me it isn’t.”

“Of course it’s not. You know me better than that.

Yeah, she’d known him better than that, but accusing him of trying to control who raised his biological children was easier than accepting the alternative—that he was right on the money about Charlie.

They’d found their way back to friendship after all that, and that rekindled friendship was still new and quite possibly delicate. Even if this newfound chemistry was real, something that went beyond Dara’s hormones gone wild, that didn’t mean pursuing it was a good thing. She and Matt owed each other the friendship they’d stupidly let die before, and she owed her child a father more than she herself needed a man.

Except this wasn’t about her getting a man. Quite the opposite, actually. Matt wanted some experience before he started dating, and she was more than willing to get him past his bedroom anxiety. After that, the world would be his oyster.

And for God’s sake, Matt deserved better than the women he’d apparently tried to date. If he’d made it far enough past his excruciating shyness to make it out on a date with one, and she’d turned around and laughed in his face for being a virgin, he was liable to be fifty before he worked up the courage to try it again.

And, well, a little experimentation with her was as safe as he could get. There was zero risk of some gold digger trapping him with “Don’t worry, I’m on the pill—oops!”

There were too many good women out there, and over Dara’s dead body was he getting duped by a woman who used her uterus as a bear trap for billionaires. Especially since Matt freely admitted—and had demonstrated—that his ability to tell if a woman was flirting with him wasn’t great. The thought of someone taking advantage of that and screwing him over made her fists ball at her sides. No way in hell was she leaving him to the wolves if there was something she could do. After all, they’d always protected each other when they were kids. He’d tried to protect her from her asshole ex-husband, and she’d stupidly let that end their friendship. Maybe this was her chance to do right by him. To protect him from humiliation he didn’t deserve.

And if things got complicated, she and Matt were more mature this time. They could look it in the eye, talk it through and stay friends the way they should have all those years ago.

Right?





Chapter Nine


Matt followed Dara’s directions to the house she was renting near the edge of Aspen Mill. The neighborhood was familiar, and as he turned the corner, he realized he’d been here before. A few of his friends from high school had grown up on this street. In fact, he was pretty sure Dara’s rental used to be Kelly Gray’s house, back before she’d gone off to join the army and her folks had moved away. It was from the 1960s, if he remembered correctly, and though it showed its age in a few places, it was in great shape. The crumbling front porch had been rebuilt, and the drab gray paint job from years ago had been replaced by a pale yellow with pristine white trim.

Seeing Dara’s Mercedes out front was strange in more ways than one, and with last night still buzzing in his mind, he pulled in the driveway and parked beside the white car. As he got out, the front door opened, and she came down the porch steps to meet him halfway.

“Hey.” She smiled, but he could see the uncertainty in her creased forehead.

“Hey.” He cleared his throat and gestured at the house. “Nice place.”

“Thanks.” She scanned the façade as if she’d never really taken it in before. “It’s a bit cutesy for my taste, especially inside, but it’ll tide me over until I can buy something.”

“You planning on buying in Aspen Mill?”

Dara pursed her lips, then shrugged. “Don’t know yet, to be honest. I can’t really do anything until the divorce is final, so I figure I’ll think about it then.” With a quiet laugh, she added, “At least by then I’ll know if this town still makes me stir-crazy.”